The government of Taiwan delayed the award of new mobile phone licenses because of misgivings about the foreign ownership of several consortia.
Taiwan is offering two nationwide personal communications network licenses and six regional licenses. Consortia applying for the licenses cannot have more than 20 percent foreign, non-Taiwanese ownership.
The pivotal question seems to be whether “overseas Chinese” are considered foreign; international reports indicate the Taiwan government does not consider overseas Chinese to be foreign. License applications, however, contain a mix of foreign and overseas Chinese investors that the government wants to more closely examine before making a decision.
Taiwan’s chosen technology is Digital Cellular System 1800, which is based on Global System for Mobile communications technology. A new award date has not been given.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications reportedly received more than 40 applications for the licenses. International reports list some of the players as: Sprint Corp. and Taiwan’s Koo Group, reportedly in a consortium called Hoshin Telecom; Hongkong Telecom (which is held in part by mainland Chinese investors) in the Taishiu Telecom Group; Singapore Telecom in a Star consortium; Formosa Plastics Group, of which the Formosa Plastic Corp. is the world’s largest integrated manufacturer of basic plastic materials; Taipei-based Fubon Fund; Evergreen Marine Corp., which is the world’s largest container carrier; AirTouch Communications Inc. of California, U.S.-based operators SBC Communications Corp. and GTE Corp.; French operator France Telecom in a consortium called Tschangda, which reportedly includes partners with business ties to the family of Taiwan’s president.
